


The Earthquake That Saved Them

by I_just_want_to_read_and_write



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Break Up, Christmas, Earthquakes, Firefighter Damen, M/M, Make Up, Paramedic Laurent, Police officer Auguste, lets see how our boys handle mother nature
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-03 22:32:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16334474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_just_want_to_read_and_write/pseuds/I_just_want_to_read_and_write
Summary: Laurent and Damen have been broken up for almost two years but they obviously still love each other because LAMEN FOR LIFE.Anyway, they get stuck in a shopping centre after an earthquake and must work together to find and save Nicaise.As they go through daring feats to save the child they love, they remember why they worked so well together in the first place...





	The Earthquake That Saved Them

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone who has been reading my other fics... I know I have three other WIP but I had a bad week and wanted to have some fun with this before diving back into the angst fests, okay?  
> Hope you enjoy!

Laurent was reading through the blurb of ‘Turtles All the Way Down’ but he was really waiting for Nicaise to bored enough to leave so he could buy his christmas present. He was considering giving it up for another time when a familiar voice asked, “Laurent?” 

He knew that voice. Knew it in his bones, the way it sounded sleepy, or frustrated or fucked out and adoring. He still looked up, hoping he was wrong. He wasn’t. “For fuck’s sakes,” Laurent muttered. 

“Hey, isn’t that your ex boyfriend? The one you stalk on instagram?” Nicaise asked, much too loudly if you asked Laurent.

Indeed, it was his ex that he, only occasionally, stalked on social media and then drank quite a few glasses of wine after seeing the many attractive men and women plastered over his chest. Damen stood across from them in the isle wearing his fireman’s uniform like he’d just gotten off from work.

Nicasie had been so excited for going out to the movies with his friends. When he missed the bus he was devastated though he tried not to show it. Laurent had given in and taken him, knowing that Nicaise had trouble making friends as it was. Of course this is what happens when he’s nice. Never again, he vows.

He glared at Nicaise because this is all his fault, making him go into public where he could bump into people he knew. Nicaise shrugged, unrepentant, “Don’t look at me. You're the one who wanted a book, I only needed you as far as the car park.”

“How are you? It’s been a while,” Damen came closer, looked at Nicaise questioningly, like he was waiting to be introduced. 

Laurent lived to be contrary, “Fine, thank you.” He didn’t ask in return. Damen tried to smile, a lock of curls falling into his eyes. Laurent’s fingers twitched to fix them before he controlled himself.

He hadn’t seen Damen in real life for two years. He tried to tell himself that time had not been kind to the other man but it was a blatant lie. 

Two years ago, Auguste was shot and killed when extracting Nicaise from his unsafe home had gone terribly wrong. He had been the only police officer at the scene and had sacrificed himself so Nicaise could run. 

Laurent had not coped well, to say the least, and when Damen got hurt from his job six months later, Laurent had lost his mind. Damen had gone into a burning building to save a goddamn puppy and on his way out the ceiling had caved in, the fire greatly burning his back where the suit had torn open. Laurent was the paramedic at the scene and had negated all procedures, dashing into the flames to pull him out. He still remembered the water that came away black and then red from Damen’s back, could still feel the dead weight in his lap. He remembered the frustration when Damen wouldn’t answer his questions because he was so worried about that damn dog. The shaking in his hands when Damen had passed out from the pain. That night, when Damen had gotten out of surgery for skin grafts, Laurent had been wrathful, terrified, and demanded that Damen quit his job for a safer one or they were done. Damen had refused, telling him that he would calm down when he was no longer so scared. 

Laurent moved out of their apartment before Damen was released from the hospital.

Six months later, Laurent had adopted Nicaise and completely shut Damen out. He couldn’t bare the constantly be fearful of the life of someone he loved so much so instead he let go.

That’s how stranger became his son and the love of his life a stranger. 

“Well this is awkward, so Imma leave you two to your mutual heartbreak,” Nicaise backed away, smirking a little. “Pick me up at seven, yeah?”

Laurent scowled at him, “Maybe I’ll let you walk home.”

Nicaise waved cheekily over his shoulder, joking back, “Love you, too.”

Damen stepped a little closer. Laurent stepped back. “So that’s Nicaise?” Damen asked.

“Yes.”

“Right,” Damen tried again, “I guess it’s hard to stay alone for someone who has so much love to give. For someone like you.”

“I would think, someone like you. You always seem to have someone new on your arm,” Laurent turned back to his book, feigning disinterest. 

Damen smiled properly at this, “So you have been stalking me?”

Shit. Laurent scowled at him. Damen’s smile vanished, looking like a kicked puppy and he ducked his head, turning away. Laurent’s heart clenched painfully and he said, “Wait,” before he knew what he was doing. “Can you get that book for me?” he pointed to a random book on the top shelf that he could easily reach himself.

Damen’s eyes lit up and reached up, practically pinning Laurent to the shelf in doing so. He smelt the same, Laurent thought dazedly.

“Here you are,” Damen whispered in his ear, pressing the book into his hands without stepping back. Laurent fought back a shiver and looked up at him. He felt the ground tremble beneath him and cursed his wobbly legs. He shouldn’t feel like this anymore. Damen was smirking a little with a twinkle in his eyes; Laurent knew what he was thinking of. 

He was remembering the time they’d gotten locked into the library one night. Laurent and him had snuck in, right before close to grab a book Laurent was desperate for. Damen had warned him that they were closing up, to come back tomorrow but Laurent refused. The previous book in the series had ended in a cliff hanger and that was a cruel and unusual punishment. When the lights had switched off and the doors locked with them on the wrong side Damen had rolled his eyes, “I told you so,” on his smug lips. He didn’t hold it over him though, for that night they had some of the best sex they’d ever had, snickering to themselves like naughty school kids between the stacks as Laurent lowered himself onto-

Laurent flushed and arched an eyebrow. In his defence, they’d easily been able to escape through one of the windows. Too bad Laurent had completely forgotten the book by then and had to go back for it the next morning. 

The ground shook again, before he could say anything. This time he knew he didn’t imagine it because he felt the book shelves he was leaning on sway and Damen looked around, confused. 

That was all the warning he got before being thrown off his feet and books started crashing down onto him. Somewhere close, people started screaming. 

Laurent looked up in time to see the shelves start to fall toward him. He screwed his eyes up, preparing to be squished like a Laurent sized pancake. 

The impact never came.

Damen was holding the damn thing up. Of course he was.

Laurent did not take in the his stupid muscles that bulged at the weight and sweat highlighting his ridiculously sharp cheekbones. He had better things to worry about. 

The ground was still shaking like crazy, Laurent narrowly avoided taking a hardcover book to the eye. Another one clipped him in the forehead. He felt warm blood trickle down his face. Damen shifted his feet to better handle the weight and one of his feet slipped on a novel. He leg went out from under him -shit knees aren’t supposed to bend that way- and he and the shelf came crashing down.

Laurent didn’t have time to scream. 

Luckily the shelf next to them was anchored by the wall and caught the falling one before they were crushed. As it was their legs were trapped, with only inches of breathing space above their heads.

Laurent impulsively gripped Damen’s hand in his own and squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for it to be over.

 

“Laurent?” Damen’s fingertips whispered over his lashes.

They fluttered open. Laurent assessed the damage. Damen was squished up on his side, looked to be having trouble breathing. His full lips are partly open, eyes molten brown- focus, Laurent told himself. Their legs are trapped, from the knee down and the tremors have finally stopped. 

Together, they lifted the shelf so Laurent could crawl out and wedge a stool underneath it. He dragged Damen out as well. He pulled the jeans up carefully, ignoring Damen’s halfhearted complaints. The knee cap had come out.

Laurent warned him, “I need to put it back in place.”

Damen noded, mouth tightening, “Just do it.”

Laurent hesitated. Perhaps he should just wait for emergency services, he might do more damage and Damen had no pain medication in him. His hands started to shake. 

Damen’s voice was gentle, unexpected, “Remember when someone let the cat in and it knocked over your favourite vase? And Auguste said it was him? It was actually me.”

This shocked a laugh out of Laurent. He barely remembered that day. Damen and Auguste were studying together at their house, doing the same first aid course. Laurent had been fifteen at the time and had laid into his brother about the broken ceramic. Couldn't even remember why now. It was probably only a ploy to get them to pay attention to him.

“I never even liked the vase,” he admitted. Damen’s face was comical before Laurent deftly slipped the bone back into place. His face scrunched up tight and his hissed between his teeth. He never swore, Laurent remembered. Aside for the exception of when Laurent went down on him. Or perhaps that was with anyone, Laurent corrected himself, with a painful lump in his heart. 

He looked away. The windows had smashed. The shop lady had curled up under the desk and was shaking. Outside was mayhem; some had collapsed, some were running in different directions. A man ran past carrying a TV. A woman stood alone, clutching a baby to her chest.

Nicaise. Oh god.

Laurent’s chest went dizzyingly cold. He fumbled his phone and called him. Once. Twice. Thrice. He didn’t pick up. “I’ve got to go find Nicaise.”

Damen sat up straighter, “I’ll help.”

“You can barely walk on that leg,” Laurent argued.

Damen just levered himself up and walked on a head, trying to hide his pained grimace.

“Idiot,” Laurent rolled his eyes. He’s afraid it came out more fond than annoyed. Damen pretended not to hear. 

“You can always thank me for saving your life.”

You could do the same, Laurent didn’t say. It was still raw enough to give him nightmares. Nicaise thought he needed therapy. Laurent thought Nicaise needed to mind his own business. 

Laurent’s eyes caught on where the ceiling had collapsed on one side of the hall. The blood drained from his face as he came to a sudden realisation. 

“He said he was going to the movies.”

Damen looked back at him, frowning at the change in tone, “Alright.”

“But he might not be there,” Laurent hoped. 

“When did it start?”

“When he left.”

Damen frowned harder, obviously confused, “So, why wouldn’t he be there?”

“I don't know, maybe he lied and went outside to do drugs instead.”

“What?” Damen’s eyebrows screwed up in a way that was certainly not adorable. Not even a little bit.

“Or maybe he has a secret girlfriend and was having a date he didn’t want to tell me about.”

“Why-”

“Or maybe he’s apart of a gang and this whole thing was a cover up and he’s not even in the building.”

“Laurent what-”

“Or maybe-”

“Laurent!” Damen threw his hands in the air, “What are you going on about? Is Nicaise a compulsive liar or something?”

“No,” Laurent corrected himself, “I mean, not really.”

Damen looked at him strangely, “Then why do you think he’s not where he said he'd be?”

Laurent felt his lungs contract as his took in a deep breath, making it shakey, “There’s a massive swimming pool on the top floor.”

Damen’s face rapidly paled as he understood, “Above the movies.”

Laurent didn’t answer but his eyes pooled with water. 

Damen touched his shoulder, steadying him, “It’s okay. We’re going to find him okay?”

Laurent pressed his lips together but nodded. He wrapped Damen’s arm around his shoulders under the pretense of steadying him as he walked on the uneven floor. They both knew that it wasn’t for that. His arm was so very warm and felt just a little bit safe.

 

They hadn’t gone far when a woman ran by who was so hysterical she crashed into them.

It was Jokaste. Fucking Jokaste. Of course she was here, why not? This was exactly why Laurent avoided these places, not leaving his house except for the library and work. Hell, he was even considering quitting his job because lately all of his patients had the hide to be conscious and wanted to speak to him. The nerve of people, staying awake after being stabbed or suffering a horrific car crash and forcing Laurent to be nice to them. Which was not his forte. 

Turned out she left her child in the change room when she went to investigate what was happening. When she returned, Theo was crying and because the building had shifted the door was now jammed shut. 

Can we get an applause for the mother of the year?

Damen immediately rushed after her to the bathrooms, concern for his nephew clouding his thoughts. Laurent dragged his feet, not unworried for the child, just not wanting to share the same air as Jokaste. He might catch stupidity.

Damen managed to force the door open a few inches but Jokaste was clawing at him, screaming that he might be behind the door and he was crying and what if Damen crushed him. Damen flinched at the thought and it lit Laurent’s fuse.

“If he’s crying, it’s because his mother abandoned him in the midst of an earthquake, you dumb bitch,” Laurent snarled before squeezing into the gap. It was tight and it may have bruised his chest but he got through.

The toilet had broken in the movement of the building and was leaking water everywhere. Theo was lying on the floor, face down. Laurent muttered a curse and hurriedly picked him up. The baby had a dark bruise coming up on his face and was saturated from the water. A centimeter more and he would have drowned. As it was, he’d need many injections to combat who knows what he’d likely ingested while lying in the filth. Laurent thought that he might just report Jokaste to Community and Family Services when this was all over. Laurent stripped the child of his soiled clothes, ignored Jokaste’s hysterical questions shouted through the door and checked for any broken bones or shallow breathing. He checked the child’s pupils as much as he could in the flickering light. He seemed okay despite the incessant crying.

“Damen, kick the door down,” Laurent ordered, backing away with Theo in his arms.

There was a crash and then Damen was there, lifting Theo up and kissing his face, relieved. Just as quickly Jokaste pulled him out of his uncle’s arms and clutched him to her chest. Damen shrugged out of his shirt and offered it to her to wrap Theo in. She accepted it and ran off before Laurent could instruct her to take the child to the hospital. 

She didn’t even thank them.

“She’s just worried about her son,” Damen said, to his dark look at her retreating figure.

Laurent scoffed and continued the way they’d been going already. He changed the subject, “Why do you always find a reason to get rid of your shirt?”

Damen grinned and flexed his pecks, “Why? Do you find it distracting?” Damen went on when Laurent ignored him, “Besides that time my shirt caught fire was a complete accident. And the time I got caught in the rain, well, would you rather I get sick?”

Laurent rolled his eyes, thinking back to the time Damen wanted to cook him a special dinner, the night they moved out together. He’d managed to catch fire to the new curtains over the kitchen sink and himself. Laurent had laughed until he cried before calling the fire department, Damen’s work mates, to help them put it out. Damen was so embarrassed when Nikandros showed up with a disbelieving face. They’d ended up ordering KFC and eating it on the kitchen floor, Laurent still bursting into random fits of laughter at the image of Nikandros with a disappointed look on his face as Damen quickly shrugged his shirt off into the sink, turning on the tap. Finding it a novel idea, he’d yanked the curtains down into the sink as well and almost been knocked out when the pole knocked him in the head with his haste. Damen had kept blushing, hard enough to see it on his skin. 

Against his will he smiled.

The smile quickly vanished at the sight of the excelators. They’d collapsed completely and there were… bodies hanging off the stairs.

Laurent prayed to a god he didn’t believe in that Nicaise was okay.

The first time he really met Nicaise was a year after his brother died protecting him. He was at the grocery store and saw a skinny kid in a ragged coat slip a chocolate bar into his pocket, before casually walking out. Laurent had recognised him immediately. 

He’d ditched his trolley and chased after him. Had slammed him into a wall and told him off. Nicaise had been surly and standoffish, telling him it didn’t matter what he did so why didn’t he just fuck off. Laurent had ripped into him, telling him that his brother had died for his sorry pathetic ass and he’d damn well make the sacrifice worth it because Auguste had meant everything to him. 

That had broken the facade Nicaise kept up. He’d burst into tears and Laurent realised that the kid already felt guilty for it. Which wasn’t fair. Laurent had backed up and apologized. Asked him where he lived and if he needed a ride. Nicaise admitted to being in a foster house and that they didn’t really care if he came or went.

Six weeks later Laurent adopted him. Nicaise didn’t make it easy. He didn’t drink or smoke. He didn’t have sex with strange older men or steal. At least not anymore. What he was, was brave, smart, funny and devious. It made Laurent realise why Auguste felt that it was okay to die, to leave him behind for the sake of this child; he reminded Auguste of Laurent when he was a child. It was a bitter pill to swallow but he did, to make his brother’s sacrifice worth it. 

He knew Nicaise knew why he’d taken him on at first. He hadn’t managed to convince the strange, spiteful fifteen year old that he’d come to love him like family this past year. 

He hoped he still had time to.

God, he hoped with all his tired heart that Nicaise was okay.

Damen snapped him out of it by being himself; an idiot.

“What are you doing?” Laurent demanded.

“Climbing.”

“I can see that,” Laurent fumed. The muscles were bunching in his back as he heaved himself up over the lip of the second floor. Laurent tried not to remember how they felt in his hands, silken skin over steel. “And what’s your plan for when you're on the second level? There are still three more to go.”

Damen huffed, shuffling up, wincing when his sore knee knocked the marble floor, “One step at a time, Laurent. That’s your problem. Always thinking to far ahead. Can’t enjoy the moment.”

I am not enjoying this, he thought but knew that wasn’t the point being made. In their relationship Damen had gotten Laurent to let many many things go. Sex in the library after close only being one of the devious things they could get up to. Before Damen, Laurent had been stiff, uptight. Quite like what he was now. He’d only wanted good grades and his brother’s attention. That changed the moment Laurent got addicted on the glee in Damen’s eyes whenever Laurent would do something spontaneous.

It had started when Laurent had shoved Auguste, fully clothed, phone and all, into the fish pond for shredding his science paper as a practical joke. He’d had a spare copy but that wasn’t the point. Damen had laughed until he was flushed enough to tell on his dark skin, eyes sparkling as he looked at Laurent in a way he’d never before.

Laurent had then taken the challenge to make Damen look at him like that all the time. So began sneaking into the school on a Sunday night to play a game of footy, glad wrapping Auguste to his bed one night he was passed out drunk, skinny dipping in a public pool at midnight, ordering literally everything on the maccas menu one night to see if they could eat it all and one memorable occasion, filling Damen’s car with ping pong balls. There were so many that, three years later, when Damen sold the car he had to disclose that he was still finding them in random places as he drove.

Laurent remembered overhearing Auguste tell Damen that Laurent became a raving lunatic whenever he was around.

“You mean he’s not always like that?” Laurent heard Damen ask, as he paused outside of Auguste’s bedroom door.

Auguste sounded perplexed, “Not until you showed up. Maybe it’s a crush. Its like Laurent to have no idea how to flirt and end up challenging you to do crazy shit all the time instead.”

Damen had scoffed, disbelieving, “Nah, I don't think he sees me that way. He's only just turned eighteen, he must have plenty of offers.”

Laurent had been mortified to realise his brother was right and he was playing this deranged version of chicken just to spend time with Damen and to make the other man smile at him.  
But the next time Damen approached him, asking what daring thing he was up to today, Laurent had done the craziest thing of all and kissed him.

That had been the beginning.

Damen reached down to hoist him up. Laurent sighed in resignation and climbed the escalator to its highest point before it dropped off like it had broken in half like the Titanic had. It wobbled under his feet. Damen’s warm hand swallowed his up. “I’m still spontaneous,” Laurent said.

“Oh yeah,” Damen adjusted their grip, “What’d you do last night?”

Ate a microwave meal with Nicaise while watching America’s Top Model. Had a cup of tea and read a book before going to bed at nine o’clock. “None of your business.”

 

Only moments after they’d gripped each others wrists did the stairs completely fall away. Laurent swug forward and turned his head last second, slamming his cheek into the ledge. His feet kicked the air. Damen slipped forward, not ready and then pulled him up in a rush.

Laurent landed in the other man’s lap.

His heart pounded as he looked down. The fall probably wouldn’t have killed him but it would have done some serious damage. He flinched when a hand cupped his face, bringing his gaze back around, “I’m not saying risk it all every day. Just remember that you’re still alive, okay?”

Laurent flicked his eyes away and said nothing. He stood up and kept walking, looking for another way up. He felt bad when he heard Damen grunt as he painfully made it back to his feet. His knee must be killing him.

They had to stop twice to help others; once for a man who’d been trapped under a Santa’s slay from the children’s photos, the other a woman who needed her leg tourniquet after a piece of glass cut through her femoral artery. Her friends helped her limp away, though Laurent didn’t know where they went to get out of the building. There must of been some exit as they were seeing less and less people.

Damen had forced open the elivator lift doors and suggested that they climb up the wires. 

He’d rolled his eyes, “Not everyone was able to climb the rope in gym class

“I could carry you?” Damen shrugged like it was no big deal, climbing up an elevator shaft with Laurent hanging on his shoulders.

Laurent just slowly blinked and walked away.

Laurent ended up with a slightly better plan. 

“You want to climb the christmas tree.” Damen framed it as a disbelieving question, staring up at the massive christmas tree that reached high enough and because of the earthquake, was conveniently leaning up toward the lip of the fourth floor.

“Why not?”

“How is this less dangerous than the elevator shaft?” Damen watched Laurent worriedly as he began to scale up the fake branch. It seemed to take his weight well enough. Mostly. 

“It’s not safer. It’s just more doable than a spy movie.”

Damen sighed and followed him up. 

They were almost there, Laurent rigorously telling himself not to look down, when Damen said, “You must really love the kid if you’re conquering your fear of heights for him.”

“I’m not scared of heights,” Laurent lied. He could see the floor he needed to jump to. It no longer had a barrier, the glass must’ve fallen away. It looked very far away when he was so far up from the ground. 

“Oh, I must have imagined it when I pretended to shake the ladder you were standing on and you threw a light bulb at my head,” Damen’s voice sounded pained. His knee must not be enjoying the climb. Oh well. He wanted to come.

Laurent bent his knees, trying to egg himself on. For Nicaise. Of course, he’d not be much help to the boy if he missed and fell to his death. “I was helpfully changing the light bulb I’d asked you to change all week. I was simply giving you the burnt out one. Not my fault you can’t catch.”

Damen’s voice was closer but he sounded small, “Is that why you… did I not help out enough around the house?”

Laurent’s heart clenched at the hurt tone, even after almost two years. He went to deny the correlation when the world started shaking again. Oh shit. Aftershocks. “Hold on!” he yelled. His own grip slipped and he fell, by pure chance, where he needed to go. The winded was knocked out of him as he hit the marble floor and he barely stopped himself from slipping over the edge. 

This one was shorter. Laurent had only managed to get to his feet when it ended. He turned back to the tree to help Damen over. 

What he saw pulled a strangled sound from his throat, “Damen!”

**Author's Note:**

> I have this all plotted out and know exactly where to take it but I feel like my writing style in action scenes is too wooden...  
> I'm not sure if anyone would be interested in continuing reading so if you are let me know and I'll finish it for you. X  
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
